Term: Short Story
Explore all pages categorised under the heading Short Story below.
All categories can be seen on the main index page.
The Other Paris
Every generation thinks it discovers sex and Paris. My 1970s discovery occurred with a Greek anti-hero in an intimate, inexpensive, crumbling Île Saint-Louis hotel. Paris...
Le Petite Voyeur
In Montmartre, near the place de Tertre, in the corner of a two-room flat, little Sébastien laid on his pallet of blankets next to Peter,...
Invasive Species
But enough about dead people. Don’t worry, I get it. You come to Paris and you want something fun, something colourful, not a pack of...
Graveside Kiss
Yolanda’s parents realised from the time she was born that she was not going to be like her sister Natasha. Internally, there was a partial...
Magasin d’âmes
On my umpteenth visit to Docteur Arnaud – his many reassurances notwithstanding – he joked to me about a possibility. I was desperate. ‘Well, they’re...
notes concerning the arc de triomphe roundabout
“Buckle up. We’re here.” I turn around to check on Diego and Mollie in the backseat. Diego is running a rosary through his fingers. Mollie...
The Sleepwalker's Paris
I wake up every morning to things that shouldn’t be there. This morning it’s a metro ticket for Line 15. There is no Line 15....
The Colour of Windex and Mouthwash
The island was hard to get to. It took a redeye flight to Miami, then a tiny plane with absurdly good service, where I was...
Issue 15: Paris
Paris has long been the site of opulence, resistance, rebellion, and style. It has inspired great writing and writers, philosophy and philosophers. In this collection,...
I’d Recognise that Smell of Fried Bacon and Sauteed Broccoli Anywhere
It’s near impossible to find a place that makes food in London that doesn’t reek of fried or baked cooking. You walk inside any food...
Land of the Swaying Palms
Land of the Swaying Palms. It was an expression Dora remembered from her childhood, a joke she and her best friend shared from their lonely...
In Too Deep
David looked up from the canvas that he was painting on the floor to check on the flurrying snow outside. He didn’t usually start getting...
Crashing into the Swamp
No one expects a plane on approach to that sunny climate to crash. But it does, and when it does, it fragments and sinks, everyone...
Second Shift
It is an incorporeal time of day, hour eighteen of open eyes. Their aprons are smeared with fingerprinted berry-red, which looks like butcher shop blood...
Potholes and Toasted Marshmallows
Rain hammers the concrete forests of Sydney’s skyline. “Operational demands Lucy,” the transplant director sighs. I hang up, throat tight. Violet looks up from my...
High Tide
I walked to Westminster Bridge, where the Houses of Parliament stretched high, imprinted on the evening sky. The moon pushed through faded pink and cream,...
Tough Times on Denali
At the Talkeetna airfield, Laurent and I gulp down balmy air, staring in disbelief at a world that wallows in tender greens around the parked...
To Thrive in Mexico
It’s the people who don’t regularly travel to Mexico who are the most scared. They’ll hyperfocus on the cartels, the kidnappings, the murders, the “bad...
Allow Me to Flow
We cut through Wli on the way to the falls, the village bisected by a dusty road gouged with potholes. Cinderblock homes frilled with corrugated...
Issue 14: Survival
Welcome to Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature’s 14th edition, on the theme of ‘survival.’ Many thanks to all contributors and the editors...
Infinite scroll
Scroll through all work published by Panorama in one long infinitely scrolling page.
A Palm Tree Untrimmed
“Your neighbour is in clear violation,” the City Inspector says, snapping a photo of Arlo’s tree on the other side of the fence. “A palm...
Pepper
My hand gently cradles a chocolate habanero, I smile remembering the time you thought the name meant it was sweet. Your face flushed as your...
The Autumn Light that Still Sears through You, Long after It is Gone
Soon after he learned he was dying, my father told me he loved autumn light, so I kept sending photos: yellow aspens glowing in dark...
Burning Love
Nargis was a hugger. She gravitated towards my mother, nestling within the warmth of her arms. Her father, my uncle, drowned his evenings in whiskey,...
Issue 13: Fire
Welcome to Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature’s 13th edition, on the theme of ‘fire.’ Fire: /ˈfʌɪə/ origin: Old English fȳr (noun), fȳrian...
In the Hall of Forbidding Signage
The Hall of Forbidding Signage, an exhibit in the Museum of Urban Life, was a memorial of warning plaques, notices, and placards, screwed on every...
The Woman Who Marries
The buildings had grown fangs, the street lamps whiskers. Billboards flocked to the skyline, pecked at star-scatter. Town cars beaked their way between gnarled claws...
A Dark Night
Night falls softly upon the land, warm and comforting like a childhood blanket, wrapping around her with an array of celestial freckles. The shade of...
Issue 12: Cities
Welcome to Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature’s 12th edition. In this issue, we present work on the theme of ‘cities,’ whether in...
Bensi
After hours of circling endless rice paddies and mountains, we alighted from the bus that had taken us to Pangasinan and took a tricycle to...
The White Boy on the White Continent
The cabin window is covered with streaks of snow and splashes of water from thrashing waves. The ship bobs violently through the stormy Drake Passage...
Travelling with My Father
We’re on a small boat heading out of Port Klang, one of the busiest container ports in the world, the largest port in Malaysia. My...
Do You Know What I Mean When I Write This?
There’s an aching in these hills and wolves that the locals are trying to kill. Their cattle turn clear streams of rainbow trout into dust...
Harmattan Haze
It is a busy afternoon at the craft market in Abuja, where he works. People and scooters trample the withered plants flanking the dirt paths...
Issue 11: Ecology
Welcome to Panorama’s 11th edition. In this issue we turn our attention to ecology—from the word’s earliest roots to present-day ecologies which span people, organisms,...
The Souvenir
The rain pelted the window of our Frankfurt hotel room. Late January, dark before dinner. My son, wobbling more than walking at 15 months, discovered...
6 a.m. in California
My husband comes in soaking wet and shivering. I drop the spatula, and shut off the stove, let breakfast burn if it wants to. “What...
Love in an RV
My husband understands an RV will allow us the getaways he needs without sacrificing my presence, a person who wants to be with him but...
Cheating Myself
Italy was supposed to solve everything. When it didn’t, we visited Alaska. Nothing worked, not the best food in the world nor the fear of...
The Flood
It was just another Friday evening. The sky clear, the street bustling with people. I walked into a new pizzeria and ordered my usual: a...
Water Hyacinth
Amir stops saying hello in a while. The last time we spoke, he was complaining. The little shack where he lives has a leaky roof;...
The Ride of a Lifetime
I do not remember getting on the train. Its constant vibration and occasional bumps are as normal to me as anything can be. Truthfully, I...
The Perfect Guide
To escape depression and Christmas jollity at home, a middle-aged English secretary called Agatha books a package holiday in Agadir, Morocco, because of its name....
Steven in Love
He began typing. Sloppily at first, the words advancing in broad choppy strokes across the blank page. Relax. Just let it happen. And Steven allowed...
Issue 10: Intimacy
Welcome to Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature’s 10th edition. This issue focuses on INTIMACY in all its forms from a closeness and...
What Did You Expect
You check out at midnight, from a palm-shaped lobby necklaced by lights. The air has a tang of diesel and sweat. You walk toward the...
Between Red and Green
I often walk around my neighbourhood. Each time, it’s like crossing a new frontier that has restitched the seams of my local landscape — Old...
Breaking In
I’ve spoiled countless hours searching for mislaid keys, and when I have to call the front desk/security/husband for help I’m always stricken with guilt, but...
The Jokester
The nice lady serving coffee at the market detects a slight twang of an accent when I say, “Thank you.” “That’s a lovely accent, where...
Sunsets in Canggu
An expat friend of mine in Canggu would always tell any visitors he had heard that the forecast said there would be a beautiful sunset...
Soldiers of the Rain
The coming of the rainy season is marked by more than just a pressurised building of heat trapped in thickening layers of humidity. This time...
The Quest of the Kelapa Muda
The perfect cure comes in green. Have a hangover? Recovering from food poisoning? Feeling disembodied? Hungry? Not hungry? Dehydrated? Tired? Sad? Order a kelapa muda—a...
Issue 9: Borders
In this issue we have work from India, Nigeria, Philippines, Israel, Netherlands, UK, USA, Brazil, South Korea, Thailand, Germany, Italy, and more. In many ways...
Variations on a Highway
I’m remembering how it felt, being a child confined in the back seat of a car with nothing to do. Curled tight as a dozing...
The Starry Night
As the door slams shut behind me, the blare of CNN is mercifully replaced by the chirping of crickets. A cool breeze dances across my...
Mangoes in the Monsoon, Free in Bali
There is a specific moment of time when the Earth converges with the Heavens. The heat is heavy, and the rain is rolling in. There...
Interment
I’m on the other side of a century. I was wandering over the crest of a hill and had just passed something for which I...
Equal Magic
NONE OF IT was expected. Not the move to Edinburgh from London, the steady civil service job after years of misery. Not the mildest winter,...
Becoming The Waiting-Nothing
Nandi, the bull-guru of Shaiva Siddhanta’s eight disciples; the trusted vahana and steadfast guardian of that great destroyer, Lord Shiva, greeted me, first, as I...
Issue 8: Space
Welcome to Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature’s SPACE issue. From the very small to the enormity of our imaginations, essays grow from...
Ted
Eight. It takes twelve 7th graders to slug a hull to the beach, dark rising. They have not been on the water before and the...
Spirit Animal
We stare at each other with unblinking intensity, this tiny brown primate and me. I’ve come to the Bohol Tarsier Sanctuary early this morning, a...
Raqib
In my hands, Alice Munro’s short story collection Dear Life. Saudia’s flight to Dammam from Riyadh is delayed. We sit next to each other. You...
Haqq
Tonight, we would not cross the King Fahad causeway. Despite dreadfully wanting to see the film in a movie house, I knew Lars von Trier’s...
Hamid
Like a dead cat, I lay in bed. Facing the broken air-conditioning on the other side of the room. The temperature here, in Saudi, plummets...
The Path to Masada
I open my eyes into pitch black, surrounded by sand, camels, and the brightest stars I’ve ever seen. “I’m not really Jewish.” Despite a night...
Issue 7: Dawn
Welcome to Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature’s DAWN issue. This bright, awakening, and challenging composition comprises a multitude of world views, places,...
Friendship Park
As usual in December, the dirt road to Friendship Park is washed out from a rainstorm, so we walk the mile to the La Posada...
The Red Hand of Ulster
‘Do you know where the red hand comes from?’ Six American heads shake from side to side. ‘An ancient king cut off his hand and...
The Count
Scene: Chino, a town of subdivisions and cattle pens—without traffic, less than an hour away from Los Angeles. At 8am, a pungent manure scent hangs...
Common Ground
The sky was pale mauve-blue, as it can only be in the earliest days of the spring. We stopped for sandwiches and tea kept lukewarm...
New Mexico Relics, 2015
From White Sands Missile Range Museum, I drive east on US Route 70 still mulling over the displays: colourful missiles arrayed like playground toys in...
Issue 6: War & Peace
Welcome to Panorama’s WAR & PEACE issue. This collection, months in the making, deeply explores the themes of war and peace, with a special emphasis...
Issue 5: Lost
Welcome to Panorama‘s long-awaited LOST, our fifth issue, which we are dedicating to the great traveller, Anthony Bourdain, whose recent passing has affected us all....
Issue 4: Seen
Perhaps more than any other time in recent history, how we see places and one another will determine what happens next to our human family....
Issue 3: Open
We present our panoramic vision of travel literature in our Spring ‘Open’ issue. A carefully curated collection of travel poetry, fiction, and memoir, the selections...
Issue 2: Treasures
Welcome to Panorama’s second issue. Panorama exists not only to publish extraordinary, diverse travel literature and imagery, but to widen the definition of what travel...
Weekend Reading
Read all articles, essays, poems, and stories published on Panorama on the weekends in between issues.
Issue 1: Firsts
Welcome to Panorama‘s first issue. Our purpose is to shift the perspective of travel literature and imagery towards a more panoramic, modern worldview, and we...